death – The Rumination Compilation

I just got off the phone with my mother; all in all, all is well but there’s one less person in this world.

I had called to let her know that my car was acting up again only to be interrupted & told that my great-grandfather, Demoze, passed away last night.

Demoze, in all his glory. I have this photo on my fridge.

It’s not that I’m at a loss for words-on the contrary, it’s just extremely difficult to find words worthy of being used to describe him.

Instead of racking my brains trying to write more, I think I’ll burn some etan as tradition goes & then encourage you dear reader, to take a moment of stillness today & reach out to those you love, while you can.

Thanks for reading.

For the past year & change, I’ve been attempting to develop multiple Scot Pine saplings for various bonsai projects as a hobby.

Recently, one of my Scot Pine saplings in a group planting I put together passed away. Rather than remove the lasting image of the error on my part, I’ve opted to remove the bark down to the cambium & appreciate the final step all living things happen upon: death.

Dealing with death is an exhausting matter; cerebral & poetic, discussions of death deal in recollections of past events & postulations of what could’ve been, often intangible.

Maybe it’s a childlike hope that reflecting on a perished pine will help me appreciate the things around me that are still alive & worth caring for. Maybe it’s the appropriate thing to do.

Either way, I’ll leave this somber Scot pine settled in the soil to see a sign of what used to be & what will come to be.

Thanks for reading

The Rumination Compilation

Tag: death

A Moment of Stillness

A Somber Scot Pine